Description
Grailem was one of Mankind’s last hopes to finally achieve immortality. Created in a test tube he had been bred specifically to be fully integrated into a mechanical body. On reaching maturity Grailem rebels against his creators and kills thousands of people. Forced into a spacecraft he is blasted into space where the spacecraft explodes and he spends an eternity drifting through space. Coming across an ancient alien race, who is more of a threat to Mankind than he ever was, he fights to save humanity from this evil race. To live forever has been Man’s dream almost since time began; would immortality bring the happiness that we all desire?

Summary
Grailem was one of Mankind’s last hopes to finally achieve immortality. Created in a test tube he had been bred specifically to be fully integrated into a mechanical body. On reaching maturity Grailem rebels against his creators and kills thousands of people. Forced into a spacecraft he is blasted into space where the spacecraft explodes and he spends an eternity drifting through space. Coming across an ancient alien race, who is more of a threat to Mankind than he ever was, he fights to save humanity from this evil race. To live forever has been Man’s dream almost since time began; would immortality bring the happiness that we all desire?

Excerpt
Chapter One
The magnetic field of the passing asteroid is generating enough energy to pull Grailem towards it. Waking from an aimless sleep he tries to use his precious energy to move closer. It has been eons since he had stood on, or even felt a solid surface beneath his feet.
Grailem has been drifting aimlessly through space since the spacecraft, with him inside it had exploded, for what seems to him eternity ago. The exploding fuel tanks had thrown him out into the cold of space with such force that he continued to accelerate to beyond the speed of light. Travelling so fast like many charged particles are able to do altered the aspect of time for him. The material universe continued to measure time in its inevitable fashion like it had done since it was created over fifteen billion years ago.
Grailem’s measure of time was infinitely slower due to his incredible speed. His artificial body did not decay and he still maintains the same amount of energy as he had acquired from the moment of his ‘Big Bang’ when the fuel tanks exploded. The spacecraft had been especially designed to go beyond the speed of light and had been mankind’s dream to achieve true interstellar travel.
The power system relied on a continuing increase in pressure of its fuel to propel it to this fantastic speed. Man had been aware for many millennia that to go beyond the speed of light, effectively would put the spacecraft and its occupants beyond the known physical universe. The designers had thought they had solved the materials problem and created new metals and materials; but the explosion proved otherwise.
The spacecraft did achieve the speed of light and passed from the universe we all know to one of a higher energy. Tachyons and other high energy particles, that have no real mass in our universe, take on different forms in a higher energy universe and reacted with the binding energy of the new metal that enclosed the spacecraft. The new fuel, also designed for this expected higher energy, failed to take into account that the pressure would keep increasing when it encountered this higher energy level.
The resultant pressure went far beyond pressures encountered inside collapsing stars and the new metals and materials were unable to cope. The spacecraft’s fuel, structure and electrical systems behaved differently in the higher energy universe, this fourth dimension, where new laws of physics were encountered. Initially the energy increased exponentially creating an endothermic reaction. The absorbed heat affected the new metals and materials in the spacecraft and created new substances until they reached a critical point and the reaction then changed to exothermic, raising the temperatures.
Grailem had considered these problems and did not blame the scientists for their errors. How could a scientist living in a three dimensional world imagine what energies and life would be like in a four dimensional world? Being kept a prisoner inside the spacecraft was certainly not the responsibility of the scientists involved in designing the spacecraft. Being kept a prisoner was due to a government and a world that was frightened of what he had become. Admittedly he had killed; and killed a lot of people, but Grailem felt that their decision to blast him out into space was extreme, to say the least.
The theories on time as predicted by the scientists when an object reaches and goes beyond the speed of light had proved almost correct. But to Grailem’s perspective, time moves at its own slow, almost cruel pace. The years pass slowly for him as he has little to distract his thoughts and he long wished for the release of death. The only part of him that is remotely human is his brain; and this has been incorporated completely into an artificial body. The body had been especially designed to cope with all environments; including the vacuum of space, but with a vital flaw of having no propulsion system.
The clouds of dust and gases of forming nebula Grailem passed through slowed him down as he flew uncontrolled through the cosmos. With no propulsion system to aid him, the friction of forming nebulae of dust and gas eventually brought his speed down to one where he could at least see the suns and planets that he passed by.
The long held dream that Man could eventually conquer death has become reality. Grailem and many others like him are the prototypes for a new generation of Man. The body skeleton made of modern metal clusters that will never decay, are almost indestructible. His inner machine workings are covered in a flexible carbon hybrid. The carbon that helps compose his skin is carbon formed with the mineral pansaleite under extreme pressure and gives the appearance and feel of human skin. The new kind of Man had to be in Man's own image and Grailem looks a prime example of his species. At a little over seven feet tall, with a muscular looking body and handsome round face he could pass at a distance, as human on any planet. Closer examination of his eyes would reveal their mechanical nature, but this can only be seen under extreme magnification betraying his true identity. This was not a problem on his home planet as many people possessed artificial eyes – but to an out worlder he was one not to be trusted.
Mankind has been incorporating humans with artificial limbs and internal organs for generations. The more that Man depended on technology, the physically weaker the human race had become. To achieve the high technology that Man desired produced pollution as a by-product that the human race was prepared to accept. The destruction of the natural world on most planets humans lived on resulted in many regularly being born with disabilities like missing limbs, blindness and also the inability to speak.
Substituting the missing limbs with man-made ones and combining computer technology, made the blind see better than with normal healthy eyes (though mechanical and lacking any sign of emotion). The disabled could walk and run better and faster and the dumb could speak thousands of different languages. To have a disability proved to be an advantage in these new worlds; as the replacement limbs and internal organs were far superior to that created by nature. All those who could afford it had mechanical internal organs especially the heart and kidneys. Some had arms and legs deliberately amputated so that they could be fitted with far superior man-made ones.
Life expectancy became measured in centuries rather than years. After three thousand years of living a full, active life the human part of the body mysteriously changed, making the body susceptible to disease and death. Not many people lived beyond three thousand years. It was as if the body had an internal clock that stopped when it reached a certain age. The only organ that did remain beyond this time human was the brain. The death of the brain was usually caused by whatever part of the original body had remained that fell susceptible to disease, killing the host.
Grailem, and several like him, had been Mankind’s hope to finally achieve immortality. Created in a test tube they had been genetically modified to have no arms and legs in the hope of creating a superior brain. The part of the human body that was created was genetically cross-mutated with an alien species of wasp which brought immunity to the countless diseases that had affected Man over the centuries. Kept as laboratory experiments initially and suspended in biotic fluid for the first three years, the brains expanded to twice their normal size and intelligence. Hard wired into a computer terminal the brains had access to all of Mankind's knowledge.
Grailem was the first such creation and named after a mythical holy grail that was supposedly still hidden on Man’s original home planet. With the added energy and mass incorporated into a normal human biological imprint had made this name seem appropriate. The hope that this newly created human would cure all of Man’s problems and be the key to eternal life was believed by many across the galaxy. The suffering caused to this new creation and too many others created in the same way, was not even considered, as was the pain and suffering that could be caused by such abominations upon the human race.
Grailem had become fully self aware after only a few months and had been content in his tank of biotic fluid. Though he was connected to the computer system that encompassed the entire planet his input of knowledge was enormous but he was unable to communicate as this was not at first not considered possible by the scientists who had created him. This error left Grailem frustrated as he was regarded as nothing more than a young infant of a few years and he was generally left alone - until the military intervened.
More advanced weapons could be constructed; with a human brain and its capacity and ability to create evil would be more advantageous to make the cold decisions that were necessary in a war rather than a computer.
The military, under the command of General Naitsirho, moved many of the functioning brains from the research facility to the military’s research centre in the desert. Grailem’s brain, being the more advanced in intelligence and size, was moved to a more secure location near the North Pole. The scientists moving him were not aware of his dependency on the computer that was hard wired into his system. Carelessly unplugging him he becomes blind and senseless and retreats into the depths of his acquired knowledge and memories.
Aware of what was happening to him Grailem decided that the best option was not to co-operate. Trying to re-activate him at the remote military outpost they could not bring his consciousness to the surface. The military, in desperation used a very powerful hallucinogenic mind control drug mixed with his biotic fluid to try to bring him to awareness. The drug, when mixed with the fluid transformed itself as it absorbed the oxygen and carbon from the life-giving bio-plasma created a new substance.
The transformed chemical spread into his brain forming a protective casing around the cells. Absorbing a high amount of oxygen from the bio-plasma this protective casing became negatively charged, further encapsulating the newly formed chemical.
With no response from his brain to any form of external stimulation; including more powerful drugs, General Naitsirho, who had high hopes for using Grailem’s advanced brain, ordered the use of electric shock treatment. Inserting electrodes into the bio-plasma surrounding his brain they turned the power on at a minimum power of one milliamp.
Having no observable effect they increased the power, not realizing that the increased power was creating an exothermic reaction raising the temperature of the bio-plasma and the power was increased. Bubbles started to form around Grailem’s brain as the fluid started to boil and the scientists quickly shut down the power.
Aware that the boiling bio-plasma would have damaged Grailem’s brain, turning him into nothing more than a vegetable, the military, saying nothing of their experiments, returned Grailem’s brain to the research facility.
The harsh treatment he had received from the military, especially the hallucinogenic drugs and the dangerous increase in temperature, had not caused damage but had made many of his brain cells mutate, retaining the harmful chemicals and forming new ones. The hallucinations created by the chemicals in his mind, as he had no eyes, became overpowering and, at times, dominated his way of thinking.
The desire to see and escape the nightmare hallucinations caused a response within his brain and the newly formed chemicals. Polypeptide chains formed together and produced fibers of collagen. The fibers cross linked and combined into a helical arrangement similar to the helical arrangement in DNA and grouped together forming two roughly shaped spheres at the front of his brain.
Grailem suddenly found, after three years of darkness, apart from the computer input, that he could see as if he had a pair of primitive eyes. The bio-plasma in the tank that surrounded his brain was opaque, limiting his vision as most objects beyond his container appeared blurred. A scientist in a white coat moved towards him alerted by the increased electrical activity recorded on the monitor.
Grailem feels his eyes alter shape as they focus on the approaching scientist. As he gets closer and peers into the fluid Grailem can see him perfectly; unshaven and dirty, with bloodshot eyes that were trying to focus on Grailem’s brain he is not the most attractive first sight for Grailem.
The increased high electrical activity detected and recorded by the computer is misinterpreted by the scientist. Thinking that Grailem is suffering from shock and the increased activity is a sign of distress, the scientist initiates the cooling system that is connected to Grailem’s tank. This system will reduce the temperature of the bio-plasma to five degrees below zero; the fluid will not freeze but will induce a form of sleep, reducing his brain activity to practically zero.